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The Vaels believed that their youngest son of three, Sebastian, was a disgrace to the family name, and would be a weight around his brothers' necks. They forced him into the Chantry, exiling him from their principality of Starkhaven.[2] While he was not without faith, Sebastian did not wish to give up his life in service to Andraste so early in his existence, and with the aid of the compassionate Grand Cleric Elthina, escaped. Elthina helped him to regain his faith however, and after reflection, Sebastian returned to the Chantry, this time willingly, and through the front door. Embracing his new role, Sebastian took vows of poverty and chastity to become a sworn brother of the Chantry... until word of his family's deaths forced him to take up worldly concerns once again.

Now, Sebastian is forced to re-enter the viper's nest of princely politics when his family is brutally murdered, leaving him as the sole surviving heir.[3]

“There are men who embrace destiny; these are the ones that change the world forever.” — FlemethThis article contains spoilers for Dragon Age II. Click here to reveal them.

Banding together with Sebastian and his unshakable loyalty and excellent aim, Hawke must choose to either avenge Sebastian's murdered family to reclaim his title or direct his holy vengeance on their enemies in Kirkwall.

Following the murder of his immediate family by the Flint Company mercenary group, Sebastian has an argument with Grand Cleric Elthina in front of the Kirkwall Chantry in Hightown. In his anger he puts up a notice, promising a reward to whomever kills his family's murderers. The Champion has a choice of accepting Sebastian's bounty from the Chanter's Board. If so after all of the Flint Company has been destroyed, Hawke can meet with Sebastian in the Chantry. Sebastian will thank Hawke for their aid and go to petition the Viscount for aid in retaking Starkhaven. Hawke will not see him again until three years later.

When he is met for the second time, Sebastian will join Hawke in full. He has discovered who hired the Flint Company, an old Kirkwall noble family who was once allied with his own, the Harimanns. Sebastian and Hawke discovered that the Desire DemonAllure had corrupted the family, which drove Lady Harimann to become obsessed by her desires to seize Starkhaven until it was all she could think of. She masterminded the assassination and placed Sebastian's feeble cousin on the throne as a puppet ruler. Johane Harimann is killed by Sebastian & Hawke and the demon is defeated.
In the aftermath, Sebastian becomes conflicted over whether he should remain in the Chantry or retake Starkhaven.

By 9:37 Dragon, the Divine began to fear that the situation in Kirkwall was growing out of control and that more extreme measures might be warranted, potentially even an Exalted March against the city itself. Sebastian was asked by Elthina, along with Hawke, to meet with Sister Nightingale, the so called "Left Hand of the Divine" and persuade her this was not necessary. Before the rendezvous could take place however, they were attacked by a Mage extremist faction, The Resolutionists. Unable to persuade the Divine's agent, Sebastian attempted to persuade Elthina to go to safety at the Grand Cathedral in Orlais. Elthina refused however, not wishing to abandon Kirkwall during a crisis and so Sebastian resolved to remain as long as Elthina did.

When Anders destroyed the Chantry, killing Elthina and many others, Sebastian demanded Hawke kill Anders or else he would retake Starkhaven and seek vengeance on all of Kirkwall.

If Hawke kills Anders, Sebastian will follow Hawke whichever side Hawke chooses to ally with. If Hawke refuses to kill Anders, Sebastian will leave, vowing to go to Starkhaven and raise an army to hunt down and kill Anders.

If Hawke kills Anders and side with the mages, Sebastian will join, saying that all creatures have the right to redeem themselves in the Void while the others are free to walk with the Maker. He will then vow to stop the "tyranny" of the Templars. Alternatively, siding with the Templars shows that he is eager to end the threat of all "Maleficarum".

Later upon asking Hawke why she is alone, she will state that Sebastian is the Chantry advisor in Starkhaven. The throne is still in contention there. Without him, it would be open war among the noble families. He'd have dropped everything to come with her, but he'd have hated himself for doing it.

Anders survived and the Inquisitor accepts Sebastian's offer of friendship:
Sebastian reclaims his title as Prince and later leads an invasion of Kirkwall. In the mission Annexing Kirkwall, Sebastian requests support from the Inquisition in helping him suppress the city's resistance forces led by Guard-Captain Aveline Vallen and hunt down Anders' associates. The Inquisitor can choose to send Leliana's agents to bolster Sebastian's forces and strong-arm Aveline to back down or send Cullen's military to bolster Aveline's resistance forces and repel Sebastian's occupation forces back to Starkhaven.

Anders executed, and the Inquisitor accepts Sebastian's offer of friendship:

Sebastian Vael reclaims his title as Prince of Starkhaven and in 9:41 decides to aid in the reconstruction of Kirkwall, which continues to suffer from Anders' actions. In the mission Aiding Kirkwall, Sebastian requests that the Inquisition send in soldiers and workers. The Inquisitor can choose to heed Leliana's advice and ignore the request in order focus resources on defeating Corypheus, have Josephine appeal to noble allies to help Kirkwall, or order Cullen to send in troops to expunge red lyrium from the Gallows.

If you romance him as a rival, he will say that he will take back Starkhaven, saying that he will give Hawke no less than a Prince. If Hawke agrees with his encouragement to compete for the title of Viscount, he will claim that the marriage between the Viscountess of Kirkwall and the Prince of Starkhaven will be the strongest alliance the Free Marches has ever seen.

If you romance him as a friend, he will vow to stay in the Chantry as a brother of the faith, but he will ask Hawke to become a sister of the faith so they can have a chaste marriage in the eyes of the Maker.

Friendship with Sebastian can generally be earned by encouraging him to stay with the Chantry, by siding with the Chantry and the templars and by being helpful to those in need.

Rivalry with Sebastian can generally be earned by pushing him to retake Starkhaven, by siding against the Chantry and by making aggressive, disagreeable or otherwise "dishonorable" choices.

“There are men who embrace destiny; these are the ones that change the world forever.” — FlemethThis article contains spoilers for Dragon Age II. Click here to reveal them.

Friendship and rivalry will noticeably affect his demeanor during The Last Straw. While he will follow Hawke no matter which side he chooses as long as his demand is met, the choice to befriend or rival him as well as the side chosen will affect how he views the situation.

As a Friend, his demeanor is much calmer. On the mage side, he will show sympathy for the mages, and say that the party must help those who have suffered at their, namely the Chantry and by extension the people of Kirkwall's, hands. On the templar side, he will lament that the mages will not rest until they have destroyed the Chantry, and that they must be stopped.

As a Rival, his tone is much more hostile to the opposing side. On the mage side, he is more concerned with showing the Chantry that it cannot tolerate tyranny among its templars, rather than the well-being of the mages themselves, that he will worry about them later. On the templar side, he vows revenge on every single mage for the actions of one man.

Extra rune slot – found on the Templar Lieutenant in Hightown during the Best Served Cold quest. Extra rune slot.

Bug!xbox360 Sebastian's armor may fail to show up on his equipment screen. His upgrades will also not show, and when the upgrades are found/purchased there will be no "level up" animation/sound indicating that the upgrade was equipped. It's as if Sebastian is simply not wearing armor. It's unknown what causes this, or if the equipped upgrades still give bonuses.

Sebastian "Seb" Hanlon, a part of the BioWare team, was at a time assigned to do most of the bug fixing and such for the character. The main reason for this was because of their similar name and it did not please him. The shared name also caused some confusion for Hanlon as every time someone mentioned the character, Hanlon thought they were directing their comments toward him.[5]

If one is to calculate Sebastian's age from what info he tells about himself, Sebastian says he was thirteen when his grandfather made a promise to give him the Starkhaven Longbow, and he was given to the Chantry some time after this. In Act 3, he states that he hasn't been to Starkhaven in fifteen years. That makes Sebastian's age at least twenty-eight by Act 3.

David Gaider said that if he could write another Dragon Age comic, it would be dedicated to Bethany. He mentioned that he wanted her to adventure with Sebastian Vael in Starkhaven, and maybe Nathaniel Howe.[6]

A bug can occur where Sebastian's loyalty bonus will apply as a negative value to Hawke even though he is not in the party. The normal bonus is 5% damage resistance, therefore during the bug it applies as -5% damage resistance. This bug stacks upon each reload of the game with Sebastian in the party adding -5% each time.

Infinite Friendship of +10 can be earned by talking to Elthina in the Chantry. This must be done before completing Following the Qun. Talking to her about "helping the community" will yield that. Infinite Rivalry can also be obtained the same way, but by choosing the "You're Useless" dialogue option when talking to the Grand Cleric in Act 2. (Does not appear to work on PC or PS3 as of at least patch 1.04)

A bug can occur in Act 2 and Act 3 when after finishing Repentance or Faith quest Questioning Beliefs won't trigger even if character has required amount of Friendship or Rivalry points. This cannot be prevented and leaves player unable to complete romance with Sebastian.